College Football Report: No. 20 Oklahoma vs. Texas

2016-10-10T03:42:44Z2017-06-16T18:38:05Z

DALLAS, TX (KSWO) - Oklahoma is back in possession of the golden hat. The Sooners scored a 45-40 win over Texas on Saturday and are now 2-0 in Big 12 play.However, this win in the Cotton Bowl was far from a thing of beauty. OU made just about every mistake in the book offensively in the 1st half, including three turnovers and a missed field goal, but despite those errors, still managed to take a one-point lead in to halftime.

“We're fortunate to be able to lose the turnover battle like we did and still win,” states Head Coach Bob Stoops. “But, on defense at times had some great...backed up the offense after some turnovers. Forced a field goal. Stole one back. You know, really fought back in certain situations in a great way.”

The second half was a much different story. Texas came out of the locker room on the attack. The Longhorns connected on a pair of deep touchdown passes early in the 3rd quarter to put the pressure on the Sooners. Oklahoma answered by putting the ball in the hands of Dede Westbrook, who turned in the greatest performance by a receiver in OU history. Ten catches, 232 yards and three touchdowns.

“When he's healthy, nobody can compete with his speed. That's the thing I've always loved to exploit, is the fact that he can outrun people. He's got the track-type speed, and that why I love throwing to him,” explains OU quarterback Baker Mayfield.

“I mean we seen on film that they were really good coverage guys. The main thing was I was just going to have to go out there and compete with them. You know, they didn't show much of anything on film about them being vulnerable to anything. They were good coveragers like we planned. Just me going out there and attacking they're technique,” says Westbrook.

The OU defense, decimated by injuries, struggled mighitly in the second half, but came away with perhaps the biggest play of the game late in the 3rd quarter. Following a muffed punt by Joe Mixon, Texas had a chance to draw within a point. Back-up safety Will Sunderland, playing in place of Ahmad Thomas made sure that didn't happen. Sunderland stepped in front of a Texas receiver for a diving interception in the red zone.

“Will has a lot of ability. We need to keep coaching Will up. He can be a player that needs to keep devoting more time to what he's doing,” says OU defensive coordinator Mike Stoops. “Hopefully this will give him confidence to move on because he has a lot of skills and we need to put him in a position where he can play and play fast and use that big athletic body of his.”

Sunderland's INT put the ball back in the hands of the Sooner offense. That's when Mayfield and Samaje Perine went to work with back-to-back long scoring drives that pushed the OU lead to double-digits, which was ultimately too much for the Longhorns to overcome.

“I thought Baker's ability to pick up some third downs, that was huge and our ability to run the football was big. We had very few third and very long. It was third and manageable, you know. Three, four, and five, those are a lot easier to pick up,” says Bob Stoops.

Perine finished with 214 yards on the ground. Mayfield racked up 390 yards through the air. It's only the 5th time in FBS history that one team has had a 200-yard rusher, a 200-yard receiver and a 300-yard passer in the same game. That firepower will be put to the test next week when OU faces one of the Big 12's top defenses, Kansas State.